Herpes Doctor

My mother has had this virus within her eye for two years. The doctor has always given her steroid creams. Now she also has an ulcer in the eye due to the steroids. Would anti virals be less harmful? Why has she not received this?

i was first recognized with having keratitis last year, when i was 14, i am not 15. This was the worst time of my life that i could ever imagine. My eye was swollen shut from watering so much, and the sun appeared to be so bright that i coudn't even open them. I went to the doctor because my eye was so swollen, and i couldnt see, and she said it was my allergies, and perscribed me allergy medication, and then told me to come back tomarrow. when i came back the next day so she could see how i was doing, when i told her i was having trouble seeing she looked at my eye. It was one big cloud over. She just looked at me and said "this was not here yesterday, you need to go see and opthamologist." So she gave me the name and address of one, and said to go right over there. When we got there she said i have a rare eye virus called keratitis, or herpes simplex and talked to me and my mother a little more about it so that we could understand exactly what we were dealing with. She gave me MORE medication and told me to come back tomarrow. When we were just about out the door my mom mentioned that we were going on vacation at the end of the week. She said that i could go but i couldn't wear my contacts, and didnt have an updated pair of glasses,so against her instructions i thought well it dont really matter so i wore them anyway. I was still nearly blind when we were on vacation, and had to go and see a doctor while we were there. when i came back from vacation, the eye specialist told me that i had scaring, and if we dont shrink the scaring that i could lose partial vision. We shrunk the scar down, and i still have it, but she said its really important that if it enlarges to come right in, she said that if it was just as small as a pinpoint lower it would be in my line of vision and i would have some blindness.This was the worst things that have ever happened! Keratitis ruined my life, but i havnt had an outbreak since.

I was first diagnosed with eye herpes in 2003. I have seen lots of doctors and opthamologists and am still looking for more qualified doctors as well as people that have had the same diagnosis. I have been on anti-virals now for several years and they have helped immensely. I see two super specialists, one at Univ of Ill, Chicago, ophthamology who recommends Valtrex and another at the Doris Stein cornea division at UCLA that finds acylovir very helpful. I also did steroids and anti-viral drops for a year or so. They did not help me, but I know they've helped others. I think it's about finding out what works best for you. If I can be of any help to you or your Mother, please let me know. :)

This is absolutely right!!!

My son, who just turned 2 was diagnosed 2 weeks ago with ocular herpes keratitis. It took us 2.5 weeks to get him properly diagnosed. I was at my wits end and drove him 10 hours to a Children's Mercy hospital in my hometown of Kansas City. Finally, there we were given a diagnosis. Because it took so long to get diagnosed he's now had a dendritic ulcer for over a month. He was prescribed acyclovir oral because being 2, its very difficult to get drops in. He's been on that for 2 weeks and as of yesterday his eye was not healed so they gave him 2 more weeks worth of it. My husband and I feel absolutely horrible. We could tell he was in major pain, yet could not get an answer from the doctors down here. Luckily, the ulcer thats left is not in his visual field, but we're worried that if it reoccurs, who's to say it wouldn't be that time either. How many of you have had this reoccur, and what type of treatment have you received?

Thanks,
A worried mom